The 21st century has piloted dramatic shifts in the space industry. Governmental space programs and private industry is leading the way towards life among the cosmos. Astronauts spend months on the International Space Station orbiting the earth. Colonies on the Moon and Mars are no longer science fiction and will soon be commonplace.
For current and future space residents, water and oxygen are scarce, irreplaceable commodities. Based on current scientific knowledge, water and oxygen cannot be produced in the geochemical and atmospheric systems of other celestial bodies. Therefore, to sustain human life outside of Earth's atmosphere, recovery of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and associated microchemicals is needed to reduce the frequency of expensive make-up deliveries of these life-supporting chemicals. Consequently, these two key resources must be conserved and recycled as much as possible.
Similarly, conservation and re-use of vital elements is important to human-inhabited underground (sub-terrain safety bunkers, storage facilities, etc.) and subsea (e.g., submarines) systems. In fact, any isolated environment meant to support human life requires conservation of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, etc.
Equally as problematic is the generation of waste in these isolated environments. Key waste streams include (1) Black Water (toilet-derived: feces, urine, associated paper, and water); (2) Food Wastes (kitchen and cafeteria derived with some water generation); and, (3) Grey Water (hygiene water: primarily water, with some soap and solids, generated from sinks and showers).
Gathering waste and dwindling life line resources inhibit human ability to live among the cosmos as well as in other isolated environments. The technology used to recover these resources must operate as a compact, low weight design with minimal energy and oxygen consumption (“footprints”). The systems must be low maintenance and simple to operate while maintain high efficiency, recovering a relatively high percentage of the life support resource chemicals for recycle. The ideal system will also be flexible and contain built in failsafe mechanisms that can adjust as events occur yet maintain operational capacity. No such system exists thus far.
To combat the lack of efficient and effective conversion systems, a Biorefinery System (“BIOSYS”) and method is described herein that effectively treats all human activity-derived waste (black water, grey water, and food waste streams) using biological systems and produces useful process products.
In one exemplary embodiment, depicted in the flow chart of FIG. 1, an aerobic biotreatment step, among other unit processes, produces lipid-enriched biomass. This embodiment requires a form of oxygen input but results in the treatment of the chemical oxygen demand (“COD”) within the water influents to essentially zero concentrations. That is, almost all of the COD is converted to value-added chemicals, except for a small residual to be captured on the granular activated carbon (“GAC”) polishing stage. A series of other products are also produced, comprising: (1) hydrogen, (2) methane, (3) Recovered Air (containing low CO2 levels) to be recycled back into the cabin environment, (4) Lipids, (5) Protein Cake (with and without lipids), (6) Soil Amendments, and, (7) Recovered Water to be reused again as potable water.
To reduce the energy, oxygen, and physical footprint of the BIOSYS, FIG. 2 depicts an embodiment of the invention that eliminates the aerobic step. This embodiment eliminates the need for any oxygen input at the expense of extent of lipid mass production. This embodiment also reduces system complexity.
With all embodiments, recovered water and recovered air are produced along with several valuable, life and isolated environment sustaining co-products, such as hydrogen, methane, protein, and lube oils.